Kos Email: The First Rule of Kosola Club Is: Don't Talk About Kosola Club

Why aren't liberal sites talking about Kosola, even if to defend Kos from suggestions that he seems to have something of a conflict of interest?

Well, partly because liberal sites just generally ignore anything at all that "hurts the team."

But in this case, Kos has been a little more proactive about it. He's sent out an email to major liberal bloggers ordering them politely requesting them to embargo the whole story.

My request to you guys is that you ignore this for now. It would make my life easier if we can confine the story. Then, once Jerome can speak and defend himself, then I'll go on the offensive (which is when I would file any lawsuits) and anyone can pile on. If any of us blog on this right now, we fuel the story. Let's starve it of oxygen. And without the "he said, she said" element to the story, you know political journalists are paralyzed into inaction.

Now, that's just a "request." But as I read that, it occurred to me that many of these sites rely upon Kos for traffic; he's the Instapundit of the left. That actually understates it; he's like the Instapundit, Malkin, Hewitt, and Powerlineblog of the Left, all wrapped up into one.

Would Kos decrease your traffic by half by simply no longer linking you if you didn't embargo the story? Well, he doesn't say that; but then, the Don doesn't have to make threats. It's always a risky business to offend a big blogger.

But Slate's blogger thinks there might even be more to it than that.

Along with Armstrong and MyDD's Chris Bowers, Kos runs a BlogAds advertising network called Advertising Liberally, to which a number of "Townhouse" members belong. (If you want a fuller understanding of how BlogAds advertising networks operate, and how they allow lower-traffic blogs to gain more clout with advertisers by combining their traffic, read this piece.) Therefore, Kos (along with Armstrong and Bowers) gets to decide which blogs belong--and don't belong--to Advertising Liberally, which means a lot of these blogs' financial health hinges upon staying in Kos's good graces. Is it any wonder they're so obedient?

He also has a link to a blogger's lament about the financial/traffic ruin of falling out of Kos' good graces.

Oh, and, one more thing: He says he's considering lawsuits.

Whatever, dipshit.

Big big thanks to Allah for that.

posted by Ace at 04:17 PM

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